Rather than simply respond to the email I thought I’d tackle the subject publicaly.
As I made reference to in episode 33 of our own show, I don’t listen to gaming podcasts. I suppose I should clarify this by saying I haven’t listened to a gaming podcast – outside of our own after final editing – in probably the last fifteen months. Partly because some I’ve never found interesting, others don’t tackle the sorts of games that I’m interested in, some sound as if they’re recorded on an old cassette tape deck, there are a few that just the language they use doesn’t seem appropriate for the subject at hand, while a couple seem more concerned with sounding like they’re a program on NPR and hit you up with a donation drive every fifteen minutes or plug their paid sponsors at every turn. The main reason I stopped listening is because I didn’t want to be consciously, or unconsciously, influenced by any other programs out there.
Elliott and I have enough on our plates without having to concern ourselves that XYZ show does something this way while ABC show is tackling this topic quite a bit and some new show is out there generating a lot of buzz. Honestly, we launched TGG because we wanted to approach the hobby in a different way than what we were running across and this isn’t to say we thought anything out there was bad but simply we probably had a different take to share. This might sound odd saying we don’t pay much attention to the competition but that simply leads me to my next point…
The Gaming Gang is not here to compete with anyone.
This is something I mentioned to Tom Vasel when Elliott and I had a chance to chat with him at last year’s Origins. Anyone thinking that my best friend and I had or have a grand scheme to be some Dice Tower or Board Game Geek killer are simply barking up the wrong tree; we didn’t launch The Gaming Gang website or podcasts to compete with anyone but to simply be another voice sharing our thoughts and views on the hobby, which brings me back to the topic at hand.
I’m not happy to see John and Cody calling it a day with Game On and I’m sure Elliott isn’t either. Granted, Game On covered a lot of stuff I suppose I mostly had no, or minor, interest in playing but that didn’t matter as the program was another voice in the hobby. No gaming podcast is going to be all things to all people – it’s impossible in the same way as it’s impossible to be a gaming expert or critic – as everyone has their own personal tastes; one person might enjoy listening to Howard Stern while another can’t get enough of Diane Rheems.
I can see where the gents at Game On are coming from when they’ve indicated the reason for pulling the plug on their show is the fact that it’s become more like a job than simply being fun. I don’t think enough folks realize a lot of work goes into producing a podcast on a bi-weekly schedule. Not only do you have to make sure that you’ve got enough content to keep the listener engaged but also make sure you’re keeping a critical eye to the reviews you provide so a lot of times you can’t just kick back with a game and goof off. Add to this the fact you have companies sending you review copies and you now have the pressure of presenting a review as quickly as you can and I suppose that can be a daunting task for some.
Personally, I was never a fan of Game On simply because the hosts always came across to me as focusing too much on gateway games and didn’t strike me as having a great grasp on the history of the hobby, playing catch up all the time, and talking about how late they were coming to the party on so many games they should have already been exposed to if they wanted to be reviewers. Plus the pace of the show was a bit too sleepy for my tastes and I would just mentally tune out. Obviously, that might not have been the case over the last year or more but the episodes I had heard led to that belief. Even with that said, I certainly wasn’t their target audience and I’m sure there’s loads of people out there in the same place in their own gaming experiences. Cody and John always came across as a couple of guys you’d like to kick back with at the gaming table and I’d love the opportunity to share some great classic games with them.
It’s a shame that soon Game On will be no more as our hobby needs as many professionally sounding (don’t get me started on podcasters who can’t be bothered to buy, or make, a pop filter let alone even make an attempt to try to edit a show) as we can handle.
We have so many different games, genres, and types of gamers out there that any ongoing or new show is certainly welcome for people of all stripes! The moment Game On comes to an end is not something for any person who cares about the growth of table top to look forward to.
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